Dark
by tacotits
Summary: It was a secret he carefully guarded - no one was to ever know that Mori Motonari was afraid of the dark. Chosokabe/Mori -One Shot-


_AN: Takes place shortly after the end of season two of the anime, when Mōri was defeated by Yukimura. The unconscious and injured ruler of Aki is discovered by the kind pirate and his crew, and bandaged and cared for, but also locked up in the bottom of the ship both for his safety and the crew's. It came about after I was discussing with a friend the possibility of Mōri being terrified of the dark._

**Dark**

When he woke up, it was dark. Mōri Motonari knew he had a myriad of words he could use to describe the haunting blackness. No matter what description he used, all would start lamenting the absence of sunlight, and finish cursing the darkness. He could talk for ages about how the night hid the filth of the world and there was nothing more refreshing than first glimpse of soft blue rays in the morning. But when he opened his eyes only to be greeted by pure nothingness, Mōri was left dumbstruck.

His hands reached about madly for something to tell him where he was—a lantern, or a candle. There had been many occasions when he had woken up in the middle of the night only to be greeted by silent black. If his hands could not find the candle and matches he always left by his futon, he would always curl up on his side and stare with terrified attentiveness at what he hoped was his window, waiting for the sun to rise. Even when he was suffocated by the empty blackness, he was always able to anchor himself to reality—the ridges of tatami greeted his outstretched fingers, and the sharp lines of his face could be felt by a shaking hand. He was still present.

But this time, there was no tatami to remind him of sunlit bamboo groves, there was no futon to bury his face under. Unfamiliar wood slid beneath his palm, and immediately Mōri drew his hand back to his person. He knew that he, at least, was still here—the ache of his body not letting him forget. It felt as if every bit of his skin had been rubbed off with sandpaper and then he had been left on the beach. But at the beach there would at least be the reassuring sound of the undulating waves, and with the sea there was the promise that the sun would come up-maybe it would be a few hours, maybe the night had only begun, but no matter what, the sun would come up. Here there was nothing, it was just dark.

It felt like an illusion at first, when a small orange globe appeared to his far right. Perhaps Nicihirin, the sun, had finally come to rescue him. But the more realistic part of his brain, which was normally the first to speak up, suggested that perhaps he was going mad to think up such fantasies.

The light hovered steadily closer, illuminating the world around it as it did and what looked to be a figure. For the first time, this darkness transformed into a long hallway, and as the light grew ever closer, he realized he was in the middle of a wooden room boxed off on two sides with metal mesh. The glowing orb became a small lantern, and the figure became the Demon on the Western Sea, Chōsokabe Motochika. Mōri's thin lips stretched out into an even thinner line, and all the words that had been lost to him the darkness momentarily returned. He was filled with all of his usual disgust, and angry words of contempt formed in his mouth as the pirate unlocked the cell and sat down next to him…

Only to die again when that same pirate blew out the lantern.

The darkness flooded in once again without care and Mōri felt himself take a sharp breath-almost like a gasp if anyone had been listening for it. His mind was empty again, and he was left with the image of the one-eyed pirate's smirk burned into his retinas, almost like a child who had stared too long at the sun.

"Quick the lantern! Light the lantern once more, you fool!" The words came unbidden and hasty. Even if he now knew where he was, the darkness had come back too quickly. He could feel his body begin to shake, and the only thing he could focus on besides that damned smirking pirate was lighting the room again.

"That's the only thanks I get for climbing down here to visit your sorry ass?" The reply was quick and snarky. "And don't bother with the lantern," he explained as Mōri's hands bumped against the glass and metal object as he groped through the darkness. "I don't have any more matches with me."

Mōri's hands flinched at this comment, the sudden movement releasing the lantern from his grasp and sending it shattering to the wooden floor. He failed to notice the curses that followed from Chōsokabe, as his hands retreated back to grip his knees tightly, and the shaking spread like an infection from his knees to the rest of his body. Ears did not register the harsh way that his name was being called. The darkness had trapped him in his own mind once again, and he would never escape.

"Mōri! Mōri! …Shit, are you shaking?" The words were easily swallowed by the abyss that surrounded him, but the strong hands which had taken hold of his shoulders were not. They were warm, surprisingly so, and Mōri could not help but lean into the embrace that followed. He had been pulled into the pirate's lap so that their chests could be pushed flush, and Chōsokabe could wrap his arms securely around the shaking man's back. Mōri did not think about how this had been the first time he had been hugged by another person in years, or how this man was the last on the Earth he ever wanted to be close to. Instead he had linked this new found warm to the sun's rays, and the only panacea for the darkness was to get as much of it as possible. He nuzzled his face into the crook between the pirate's neck and jacket collar, and wrapped his hands tightly about the other man's waist. As Mōri focused only on pushing himself closer to Chōsokabe, soft and comforting words finally made their way to his ears, and he let himself relax just enough to drift back to sleep.

When he woke up again it was still dark but the location was most definitely different. His hands and feet revealed that he was resting in a mess of blankets—they were mismatched and of different sizes and fabrics, all piled on the floor on top of each other. But there was something about this disorganization that was soothing, and Mōri immediately pulled the closest cover over his head and curled up into a small ball. Something rustled in the blankets nearby and a weight rested itself on Mōri's head, causing him to freeze immediately.

"Shh, it's just me," the low husky voice of the pirate greeted him, but it was only the calloused hands which gently untangled him from the sheets so that they could lay side by side that set him at ease. "Shh," Chōsokabe repeated, rubbing gentle circles into Mōri's back in some attempt to create comfort.

With his eyes closed and the pirate's heat enveloping him, Mōri was able to forget for a moment that he was trapped and venerable in the darkness. And if he focused on that man's whispered kind words, the fog lifted from his mind, and he was able to think clearer. "Why are you doing this?" The words seemed flat and hollow, but he was pleased that they had managed to escape his lips at all.

There was a pause as the hands that were rubbing circles on his back stopped, and instead pulled him closer in what must have been a hug. "…Because I never knew how badly you needed someone." Mōri, eyes still closed, frowned and was about to utter and objection when a pair of foreign lips were pressed to his cheek. Breath hitched in his throat, he could only wait as those lips left kisses on his other cheek, and his forehead, and even his eyelids. But no matter how many kisses Chōsokabe left on his face, he avoided the one place that meant the most. A sigh suggested he was finished with his kissing business, and Chōsokabe simply rested his forehead against Mōri's.

Darkness almost forgotten, Mōri's mind spun in uncontrolled circles, mortified that rather than be surprised by the fact that he had been kissed by his rival, he was surprised by how warm and gentle the kisses had been, and how much he wanted more. Chōsokabe's heat was his only salvation in this horrible darkness, he reasoned, so then it would only make sense if he desired this to continue, whatever "this" was.

With new determination to banish whatever control the darkness had over him, Mōri took his own kiss from Chōsokabe, this time going for the only place that he pirate had missed. The reaction was immediate, and that other pair of lips clashed against his. Tongues were added to the mix, and Chōsokabe's hands began to wander across Mōri's body, one sneaking under his _kosode_ to tweak a nipple while the other slid down to firmly grasp a butt cheek. Just as he had hoped, Chōsokabe left trails of hear wherever he touched, and now Mōri felt like his insides were finally heating up again, fire pooling in his chest and his groin. Those same hands gently rolled him over, and Mōri found himself on his back. Lip contact was broken for that brief moment, but Mōri did not have the time to worry about the darkness before Chōsokabe's lips claimed his neck, leaving a trail of hot kisses from behind his ear to his collarbone. He could only pant and dig his fingernails into Chōsokabe's bare back as the pirate untied the _obi_ that kept his _kosode_ shut, and ran large fingers over Mōri's thin but muscled chest. He was careful to avoid bandages that Mōri had no recollection of wrapping around himself. The wounds must have been from his fight with that red-garbed pawn, meaning that the bandages would have to have been applied by the pirate. Before he could think further about the ramifications of this, those same hands that had roamed over his chest paused to rest at his growing errection.

His mouth was captured once again with kisses, but Mōri was distracted by the clumsy and rough hands that ran along his length, and he whimpered into Chōsokabe's mouth as a set of fingers squeezed the tip of his shaft a little too tightly. This noise set the pirate off like a chain reaction, and a needy groan escaped his mouth, followed by this left hand leaving Mōri to search heatedly through the blanket pile for something. The distinct clank of a small glass jar could be heard, followed by the unscrewing of a cap, and suddenly Chōsokabe was poking one of his fingers into a place it definitely did not belong. Protests formed on his lips immediately, and the fingers that had been digging into Chōsokabe's back were now trying to push him away.

"Just hang in there a bit Motonari," the pirate whispered, immediately halting the other man with mentions of his first name. Squeezing his eyes ever tighter shut, the lord of Aki tried to relax as a second finger was added to the first squirming inside him. The fingers were most certainly warm, but that wasn't the issue; unlike all the touches up to this point, they felt alien and out of place, and most certainly did not please him in the slightly, that was, until they hit a certain spot deep within him. He took a sharp intake of air, and renewed his grip on Chōsokabe's back. The pirate seemed to have taken note of this because his fingers were now being shoved in and out of Mōri, hitting that same spot repeatedly, and drawing harsh panting from the smaller man. And just when Mōri thought he couldn't get enough of that motion, the fingers were removed, and without warning something much larger was pushed into him.

Gritting his teeth, Mōri accepted the pain without complaint this time. He wondered if he should have resisted more, but the way the pirate had been rendered to a series of unintelligible pants and groan as soon as he squeezed his way into that tight ass made Mōri reconsidered. Soon enough the pain subsided, and Chōsokabe managed a nice rhythm of thrusts, managing to hit that spot of Mōri's every time. Perhaps he was still vulnerable from the dark, or perhaps it was the ridiculous amounts of pleasure that Chōsokabe was gifting him with, but Mōri found himself unable to think of anything about the silver eyed pirate and how much he wanted this to keep going for as long as possible. Locking his legs up behind the other's back, he responded to a sloppy kiss from the pirate as the rhythm suddenly increased in speed.

Groaning into the kiss, Mōri almost crumbled under his rival's vigor. He could only drag hot red marks across Chōsokabe's back with his nails, and demand more, more, faster, faster, please. please. please. Augh, Motochika! Mōri's thoughts dissolved into a mess of bliss and the white haired pirate, and he felt himself reaching his limit. A final thrust from the pirate sent him spiraling overboard, and he heard himself call out his rival's name as he came. Chōsokabe followed almost immediately after, weakened by the sound of Mōri whimpering out his name so sweetly. They both hung suspended in time for a moment as they tried to catch their breath. The pirate was the first to move, sliding out of Mōri and collapsing on the blankets next to him, moving to pull Mōri into a sideways embrace. Weariness overcame the ruler of Aki, and with the sound of Chōsokabe breathing softly in his ears, he was able to drift off into slumber land without another thought for the darkness that blanketed them both.

The sun peeked up over the ocean, sending gentle rays through the windows of a certain pirate's cabin. With the sun, Mōri once again felt like his normal self, aside for a little soreness in a place he had never worried much about before. As he looked for his _kosode_ amidst the piles of blankets, Mōri's eyes drifted to the sleeping face of Chōsokabe. His white hair was splayed out around his head like a disgruntled halo, hiding his one good eye. Without a thought, Mōri reached downwards and was about to brush those white strands back when his hand froze. Was this some sort of fondness for his most detested rival? He hastily withdrew his hand and put on his garments sparing another glance in the other man's direction. Determined to escape this ridiculous pirate boat before Chōsokabe woke up, Mōri made his way to the door of the cabin only to be met by a rather miffed looking parrot. For some reason, the yellow bird seemed to be reproaching him, as if scolding him for leaving behind his master without another word. Ridiculous. Mōri thought. I owe that fool nothing. But even as he thought this, he couldn't stop himself from looking behind him to where Chōsokabe had curled himself in the blankets, chest heaving slowly as breath moved in and out of his lungs. Mōri felt a pang in his chest, and knew that he if didn't leave now, he never would.

The sea breeze greeted him like an old friend, and Mōri looked up at the sun, his eternal savior. Just like their captain, the crew had still been asleep, so finding and preparing a small escape vessel had been easy enough. But even now, with the small sails full of vigor and ready to carry him back to the Aki he would reclaim, and the sun leaving warm caresses on his skin, Mōri couldn't help but think back to the warm that the pirate had bestowed on him, and how he had been captured completely, if only for one night. His eyes shifted back to Chōsokabe's ship, and hoped to himself that there was a difference between loving someone and being in love.

_END_


End file.
